1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for searching for a sensed object, and particularly to an apparatus for searching for a sensed object in which the direction to the present position of an object, e.g., a movable object such as an automobile, is displayed on a portable operation unit on the basis of the displacement locus of the operation unit after the operation unit is removed from the object.
2. Description of the Related Art
When an automobile is parked in an inexperienced place, when the driver leaves the parked automobile on business for a long time or goes relatively far away from the place where the automobile is parked, and when the driver returns to the place where the automobile is parked after the business is finished, in some cases, the place where the automobile is parked cannot be found, and the driver has difficulties in finding the parked automobile.
Such a state is frequently created when an automobile is parked in a strange large-scale parking lot, for example, when many temporary parking lots are separately located for persons to see events such as a sample fair, an exhibition and a festival, or when a driver parks an automobile in a multistory parking lot where many cars can be parked on each of stories and the driver runs the driver's own car in and out of the parking lot. This state is also created when an automobile is parked on a road in a place where roads are complicated, and there is nothing as a guide in the vicinity of the parked automobile.
When a driver loses sight of a place where the driver's own automobile is parked, as a matter of course, the driver must search for the place where the automobile is parked. When the driver searches for the place where the driver's own automobile is parked, if a search range is defined, the parking place can be searched for by spending time to some extent even if the search range is relatively wide. However, when the search range is not necessarily defined, for example, when one of a plurality of parking places where an automobile is parked is not found, as described above, or a story in a multistory parking place where the automobile is parked is not found, there occurs a serious situation in which much time is required for searching for the parking place.
It is also dangerous and obstructive of running of other automobiles to walk about a parking place for searching for the parked automobile.